IGas buys Dart Energy for £111 million

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Britain’s second largest shale gas explorer has acquired an Australian rival in an attempt to create a new “national energy champion”.

IGas, which owns the right to explore thousands of acres of land for shale gas, has bought Dart Energy for £111 million.

The deal will create an AIM-quoted company with rights to prospect under more than one million acres of British land, much of it in the Bowland Shale basin, which stretches from south of Liverpool to Middlesbrough.

Andrew Austin, chief executive of IGas, said: “This is a British success story establishing IGas as a key contributor to UK